March 3 marked the Georgia State Legislature’s Crossover Day for this legislative session. Crossover Day in the Georgia State Legislature marks the date when bills must be passed on to the other house of the legislature in order to remain viable for the rest of the legislative session. Crossover Day is normally on the 30th day of Georgia’s 40-day legislative session but occurred on the 28th day this year.

House Bill (HB) 51 was one of the bills passed to the State Senate on Friday. HB 51 is a bill that would change how sexual assault investigations are handled on college campuses in Georgia. Currently, according to Title IX, if a sexual assault is reported to a school, the school has the responsibility to provide a safe environment for all of its students and should investigate any allegations of sexual assault. HB 51 would require that local police undertake any investigations of sexual assault while restricting institutions from taking disciplinary action against students accused of sexual assault until an investigation leads to a determination of guilt.

Supporters of this bill say that investigations into serious crimes such as sexual assault should be handled through the official justice system while opponents argue that the school should protect its students and should not rely on a inefficient justice system that often leads to lengthy and invasive investigations. Supporters also say the bill protects against false accusations and that universities are not equipped to hold an investigation, while opponents of the bill say that it will result in a reduction of reports of sexual assault.

HB 280 also passed through the House on Crossover Day. Commonly referred to as “Campus Carry,” this bill would allow concealed carry on college campuses in Georgia, excluding living spaces and sporting venues. The University System of Georgia chancellor of the Board of Regents testified against the bill, stating that he believes the current law keeps students the safest. A similar version of this bill, HB 859,
passed both chambers last year, but was vetoed by Governor Nathan Deal. It is unclear as to whether or not HB 280 will also face opposition from the governor, as this year’s version corrected problems that Gov. Deal cited as reasons for
last year’s veto.

House Bill 471, a bill designed to make any generally accessible outdoor area on college campuses a platform for free speech, did not meet the deadline and cross over to the Senate. Supporters of the bill argued that it would have expanded the rights of free speech for individuals on campuses, while opponents stated that it would have made it more difficult for a university to suppress somebody expressing hateful opinions. Currently, there are “free speech areas” on most campuses where universities allow groups to speak freely; the Ferst Center Amphitheater serves as Tech’s area.

Senate Bill (SB) 79, known as the Casino Bill,  will not be moving forward during the rest of the legislative period. SB 79 would have allowed for two “destination resorts”, also known as casinos, to be formed in Georgia. Twenty percent of the casinos’ revenue would have been taxed, 30 percent of which would have gone to the HOPE scholarship fund. Advocates for the bill argued it would have added jobs, while opponents of the bill cited moral arguments primarily.

The six InVenture Prize finalists are hard at work preparing for the March 14 finale at the Ferst Center, on March 7, news media was given the chance to talk to the finalists and preview their projects.

Gaitway, a transportable set of parallel bars designed and built by Nora Johnson and Veronica Young, hopes to become a new solution for pediatric ambulatory therapy.

Gaitway is significantly lighter than other parallel bars, can fold to fit into the back of a minivan, and is able to support the weights of children from 15 months to 10 years old. Gaitway’s flexibility makes it potentially more attractive to physical therapists who need to carry equipment to the homes of children of a variety of ages.

Capable Cane, a project by Jeffrey McMichael, hopes to target walking problems the other end of the age spectrum faces.

Improving on previous canes that unfold into small chairs that often are unsturdy, the Capable Cane unfolds into a four-legged chair that resembles a lawn chair.

McMichael hopes to market his product to the 6.5 million people in the United States that the CDC estimates use a cane, walker, or crutches.

However, since the design also doubles as a lighter version of a lawn chair, he believes Capable Cane could also be sold to a general audience.

In the future, McMichael hopes to shave down weight by replacing some the aluminum pieces with molded plastic and add height adjustability features, which some senior citizens asked for when he discussed his product with nursing home residents.

CauteryGuard, created by Jack Corelli, Hunter Hatcher, Dev Mandavia, Devin Li, all biomedical engineering majors, improves the standard design of the high-temperature electrocautery devices used in 80 percent of surgical procedures, according to Dev.

CauteryGuard fixes common electrocautery dangers by using a spring to automatically retract the hot filament into its casing after usage, allowing it to cool unexposed. The team has already managed to reduce the design’s form factor to the regular size of a electrocautery device, and hope to be able to push their manufacturing cost down to less than 30 cents above competing products’ cost.

CPR+, from David Ehrlich, Ryan Williams and Samuel Clarke, is a CPR mask that guides untrained users through the entire
CPR process.

The team hopes to position CPR+ as a complement to automated external defibrillator (AED) systems, which treat patients that suffer heart attacks. However, AEDs that guide users through emergency care can cost thousands of dollars, while the team plans to bring the price of CPR+ down to $100. The CPR+ team plans to sell CPR+ to school systems, where good placement and timely use of rescue devices can save children’s lives.

PickAR, a project by Wenqi Xian, Sarthak Srinivas and Cheng Hann Gan, uses augmented reality enabled by the Microsoft HoloLens to increase the efficiency of order picking, which is the act of moving products between different areas of a warehouse.

After putting on the HoloLens, a warehouse worker is able to see a 3D overlay over the warehouse shelf that shows a path of green arrows between the pick-up and drop-off locations. The team is also adding the ability to track item numbers by using the HoloLens’ front-facing scanning on product barcodes.

Because order picking takes up 60 percent of warehouse operating costs and 80 percent of order picking is manual labor, by speeding up human workers, warehouses could see dramatic savings.

InternBlitz is the only project with no hardware component, but having already launched its beta for Tech students, it’s also the only one with a current user base. Created by Murtaza Bambot and Nathan Dass, InternBlitz is a website that allows students to apply to internships in the same way they would to colleges: in one central hub.

The team wants to keep InternBlitz free, saying that you “shouldn’t need money to make money,” but they hope to monetize the product through data analysis of internship-hunting behavior to help recruiters learn how to find the best candidates for their respective companies.

The projects will compete for $45,000 in prizes at the March 14 finale. The first- and second-place winning teams will also receive free U.S. utility patents and acceptance into Tech’s Flashpoint startup incubator program.

President Trump signed an executive order on Monday that will replace the temporary ban placed on immigrants from seven middle eastern countries put out in January. This new order, while the rhetoric coming from the Trump administration is still relatively the same from the first order, the provisions and implementation are different. The executive order will go into effect March 16th, in the hopes that the mass chaos across airports nation-wide that occurred in January will not be repeated.

One of the major changes at first glance to this ban is that it now only covers 6 countries. Iraq was taken off the list by the urgings of Defense Secretary Jim Matis, who claimed that keeping Iraq on the list would deter coordination in defeating the Islamic State. The ban also exempts permanent residents (green-card holders), and current visa-holders. There was also a drop in the language that was viewed as preferential treatment of ‘religious minorities,’ assumed to refer to Christians, in the screening process. Unlike in the initial ban, there is also no longer an indefinite halt on Syrian refugees, replacing it with a 120-day freeze that can be renewed or updated.

From what it seems, this new order essentially took a more buttoned-down look at the ‘America first’ rhetoric that the Trump administration has been promoting and packaged it neatly into a ban that will be harder to argue against in court. By having the hindsight of more than a month of criticism on the first order, the President and his circle of advisors were able to lock down a potentially more effective ban than the first go-around. Margaret Huang, the executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in a statement that the new order would “cause extreme fear and uncertainty for thousands of families by, once again, putting anti-Muslim hatred into policy.”

Critics of the President Trump say that these executive orders and his statements on ‘extreme vetting’ of refugees into the United States blatantly ignores the already rigorous screening measures. The ban also seemingly ignores the fact that none of the recent terror attacks on American soil were executed by nationals of any of the six countries put on the order.

Already this week, Hawaii and Washington state have stated that they will challenge the ban on the federal circuit. Attorneys general from Oregon as well as New York have stated that they intend to challenge the ban’s legality as well.

Only time will be able to tell the lasting effects of this order and what, if anything, the court system will be able to do about it.

On Feb. 10, 2017, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal called for a special election on April 18 to decide who would be the next congressman/congresswoman to represent Georgia in the 6th Congressional District, which comprises of eastern Cobb, northern Fulton, and northern DeKalb counties. Former Representative Tom Price had to resign earlier in February due to accepting the role of U.S. secretary of health and human services, thus there is a vacant seat open in 6th Congressional District.

Coincidentally, there are two candidates running for the position in the Republican party that just so happen to be graduates of Tech. Bob Gray (AE) and Keith Grawert (MSIE) are both in the race for the congressional seat, and it is definitely exciting news for students and faculty here at Tech to know that alums of the Institute are getting active in state and national politics.

Bob Gray comes from a long line of military lineage, with his father serving in the Cold War, his grandfather serving in World War I, and his great-grandfather serving in the Civil War. Though unable to join the service himself, Gray received his pilot license while simultaneously majoring in aerospace engineering at Tech. He later on went to complete his engineering degree at Purdue University in Indiana and obtain an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago. He has had ample success in the private sector for several years, and is even on the board of directors of Ammacore, a company based outside of Atlanta that focuses on network solutions. He is also a lifetime member of the NRA and is a member of the River Bend Gun Club just outside of Atlanta.

Keith Grawert has also had experience with aeronautics as he has served in the Air Force as a pilot and is currently a major in the Air National Guard. He also has a background in electrical engineering and economics from Duke University, from which he completed his undergraduate degree in 2003. He subsequently graduated from Tech in 2010 with a Master’s in Industrial Engineering. Like Gray, Grawert also has a strong military background and believes in the protection of veterans and the men and women who are serving our country domestically and overseas. During his time in the military, Grawert was deployed four times to the Middle East, where he flew nearly 500 resupply flights within both Iraq and Afghanistan. Throughout his career as a pilot, he has flown even some of the most senior political figures in Washington D.C. from the vice president to the first lady. Though he has recently left active duty, Grawert still plans on serving the National Guard part-time as a pilot.

Both Gray and Grawert were willing to be interviewed for this article, and were asked questions on how their past experience has influenced them to run in this election.

“Because of my background in business, I have noticed that we are sending people to Washington who lack business experience,” Gray said. “They enjoy being a part of the debates, but aren’t focused on the results, which is crucial not just in the business world, but in general problem solving. By sending people who have experience in government to Washington, we can be more effective on achieving results rather than only debating.”

“I feel that the military is a logistics organization, and when I was flying cargo aircrafts in the Air Force, I was a part of that logistics system,” Grawert said. “That’s why I felt that coming to Tech for my Master’s in IE was the right choice because the program was focused on what I was already doing in the military, and I feel based on that background that it was a logical transition for me to move from serving my country in the military to serving the public in office.”

Both alums have very interesting backgrounds in not just military service, but also passion for what they love and believe in. Both candidates believe strongly in military benefits and ensuring that those who have served or are serving in the Armed Forces will be compensated appropriately. Both of the candidates also feel very strongly that the government has become too powerful and has had too much influence over the people in the past several years.

On April 18, 2017, there will be a new face in Washington representing the 6th Congressional district. The role of a Representative is no simple task and can really influence how much progress can be made in a short span of time. These are just two out of dozens other candidates to choose from, and it is the responsibility of the electorate to decide who represents their values the most. Who knows, come April we may have a Helluva Engineer as the voice of many Georgians in Washington.

Coal has played a long and important role in the development of modern society. The mineral first emerged as a fuel in Neolithic China, but its widespread use really started in medieval Britain, where coal was easily accessible in rock layers near the surface.

Britain’s extensive coal reserves propelled the industrial revolution as it first began in the early 19th century, and it was due to the unique availability of coal that Britain soon became the dominant industrial power of the 19th and early 20th
centuries.

Similarly, coal power helped to power the incredible industrial growth in the rest of Europe in the mid-19th century, the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and China in the 20th century.

In the U.S., an enormous industry has grown around the extraction of coal, employing, at its peak in 1923, 863,000 Americans. Due to a variety of factors, including increased automation, declining coal reserves, declining demand from the shrinking American steel industry and increased environmental regulation, employment in the coal mining industry had fallen to 65,400 by 2015.

This drastic decline in employment has been regarded by many as the unnecessary death of the industry at the hand of climate change regulators. Donald Trump has been particularly friendly to coal, arguing that reviving the coal mining industry with clean coal technology could bring thousands of jobs back to the U.S.

Much to my disappointment, the argument against the “revival” of the coal industry has largely been the environmental one. It has been argued time and time again by those on the left that coal simply does too much harm to the environment for it to be a long term fuel source.

Those on the right have been for the most part unreceptive to this argument, either because they do not believe climate change to be man-made or because they feel that boosting employment is a much more urgent task than protecting the environment.

It frustrates me greatly that the public debate over coal has centered primarily on the issue of the environment. Regardless of whether or not you believe in climate change, you must recognize that coal is not a long term solution to the world’s energy problems.

The World Coal Association, a global coal lobby, notes on its own website that worldwide reserves of coal are enough to last just 110 years at current levels of global consumption.

If, as President Trump hopes, a global boom in coal consumption arrives on the back of clean coal technology, the lifetime of global reserves will fall even further. It does not take an economist to understand that a 110-year boom in employment does not constitute long-term growth.

To make matters worse, the more the U.S. increases its economic dependence on the coal mining industry, the more catastrophic and dangerous the eventual collapse of the industry becomes.

We, as Americans and as citizens of the globe, must realize that coal can no longer be viewed as a vehicle for the construction of great economic empires. Coal is not an engine for the world economy or a solution to the global energy deficiency; to treat it as either is like using a Band-Aid to mend a crack in a dam.

A few minutes before noon on Friday, Feb. 24, a swarm of students waited anxiously in front of the door to the Student Center Ballroom, ready to race to claim one or two of the 170 remaining tickets available for the Phantom of the Opera at the Fox Theater on Thursday, March 2. 330 of the 500 available tickets, were claimed on Tuesday, Feb. 21, via Techstuff2. The tickets were released at 5 p.m. and the site crashed shortly
thereafter.

SCPC and SGA worked together to subsidize the tickets and negotiate with the Fox and producers of the show to bring down tickets from $70 to $34, according to Sanjana Basker, second-year INTA. Tickets per student were sold for $15.

The methods SCPC took to prevent the website from crashing included posting the event only a day before the event and not announcing the time of ticket release, as that method had worked in the past for tickets for “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find
Them” last Fall.

Unfortunately, the demand for GT Night at the Fox was much higher than anticipated.

“A lot of people happened to be lurking on the website when ticket sales went live and 1000 people hit the site at the same time,” Basker said. “Sequoia, the provider, was unequipped to handle that.”

Following the site crash, SCPC received around 570 Facebook messages, and a group of 20 members worked tirelessly for two hours straight on Tuesday night to respond. The Buzzcard office also helped in redirecting people who had been charged money but not assigned a ticket.

However, the issue of what to do with the remaining 170 tickets was yet to be solved.

The tickets needed to be sold by the end of the week into order to work on the logistics of the event, so SCPC had to work fast, deciding that Friday ticket sales were their best option.

“We realized that not a lot of people would be able to make it because of class or other conflicts, but the reality is that with a limited quantity of tickets, putting ticket sales during a time that didn’t work for all of campus worked to our advantage,” Basker said. “We got a lot of criticism for opening lines three hours before the ticket sales even occurred, which I understand, but as it is, there were people loitering around starting at 8 a.m. and complaints of ‘cutting in line’ before our line opened because the unofficial line people had established wasn’t being overseen by anyone.”

The biggest worry in this scenario was mollifying an anticipated riot of students at the doors right before ticket sales.

“Most people that did end up in line were really understanding and accommodating, especially because the first thing we did once lines opened was to go around and address people’s questions regarding the choices we made about ticket distribution,” Basker said. “We even brought out extension cords with power strips for people to charge laptops while they waited, which helped lighten the mood.”

SCPC started ticket sales at 3:30 p.m. and all remaining tickets sold out within 20 minutes.

“We pride ourselves at SCPC in running efficient, fun, interesting events and I personally feel like, though we did the best we could with what we have and I’m immensely proud of how we responded, we can do things differently next time,” Basker said.

Because this has happened in the past, with Cirque du Soleil last Spring, SCPC is in the process of brainstorming a number of alternatives in place of using Techstuff2, including using Orgsync, in-person ticket sales scattered over a week, with a certain quota of ticket each day, or opening an interest form for 24 hours and randomly selecting people. The Atlanta Life Committee was unable to test out these options ahead of time as they were preparing for GT night at the Aquarium; however, the Fox has expressed interest in doing other shows with SCPC in the future, so SGA and SCPC will be working to create a solution.

Heading into the season, the men’s basketball senior night matchup against Pitt would probably be seen as Tech’s best chance of pulling off a conference win for its graduating seniors. Instead, it was the cherry on top of a sundae of a season that honored the hard work the seniors put in to make the season what it has become.

Six senior players were honored before Tuesday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Panthers: guard/forward Jodan Price, guard Josh Heath, forward Quinton Stephens, guard Corey Heyward, forward Kellen McCormick and forward Rand Rowland. Each player was presented with a framed jersey and flowers as they received a standing ovation from the crowd.

During the game, the seniors continued the success they had seen throughout the season. Stephens and Heath led the seniors in scoring, rebounding and assists with nine points, six rebounds and five assists as their respective highs. Additionally, Stephens led the team in playing time with 38 minutes; Heath was not far behind with 35 minutes on the court — both key figures while standout freshman guard Josh Okogie battled some foul trouble.

While the seniors are not necessarily the star scorers, their roles will not be easily replaced. Heath has been a master point guard this season, successfully dishing the ball out to the rest of the team: he currently leads the team in assists with 114 on the season. While he is not the most prolific scorer, he scores when the team most needs it, especially last night where he nailed two clutch three-pointers.

Stephens continued his quietly consistent season with yet another game that neither put him in the spotlight or in the dumps. If the Jackets have needed a rock throughout the season, Stephens has been there to make the clutch three, force the crucial turnover or dole out the perfect pass. He currently leads the team in three-pointers with 43 and is second on the team in rebounds, only behind prolific big man Ben Lammers, a junior. His consistency can also be seen in the fact that he has started and played in all 30 games this season.

If Stephens was ever to not show up, Corey Heyward would certainly step up in his place. Another player who has appeared in all 30 games this season, Heyward has been a rock on the defensive end of the court. The son of a late NFL player, Heyward brings an approach to the court that is as tough-nosed as it is cerebral. When Tech has found itself with difficult match-ups, particularly against bigger athletes, Heyward has consistently competed.

Finally, there are the three role players in Price, McCormick and Rowland. While each may not have the most obvious contributions to the team, their input is specifically needed. For Price and McCormick, that means being able to come off the bench when starters are in foul trouble or need rest. Price’s lack of minutes were less an indictment of his talent than they were a statement of that around him.

Rowland is a different story; the walk-on joined the team knowing he would most likely never see the most playing time. But the energy and leadership he brings to the team has been exceptional. His off the court work landed him a spot on the Allstate National Association of Basketball Coaches Good Works Team.

With the game nearing the final buzzer, Tech was able to secure the ball and call a timeout. This allowed Coach Pastner to put Price, McCormick and Rowland into the game for the final six seconds, meaning that every senior took the court last night. It was the icing on the proverbial cake that was a win on senior night.

Last year’s senior class was outstanding. Guard Marcus Georges-Hunt is battling for a spot in the NBA, and other key contributors graduated. However, this year’s group is impressive in its own right. They will be remembered as Josh Pastner’s first seniors. Should they keep winning, they will be remembered as much more.

Tech’s indoor track and field team has been breaking career best after career best this month.

Multiple athletes broke personal records at both the Music City Challenge and the Tiger Tuneup earlier this month. The ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships in South Bend, Ind., last week were no different. The Jackets made a name for themselves at the championships as they worked to hold their own against three of the nation’s top ranked track
and field teams.

Looking to move up in the national rankings, Tech brought its best athletes to South Bend. The Jackets entered the championship with 10 athletes ranked in the top 10 of their events. Earning 11th and sixth places in the men’s and women’s relays on the first day, a solid but unspectacular start, left the women 14th and the men ninth when the day closed.

The team rebounded on day two of the ACC Championships: more than 10 athletes broke personal records on the second day of competition. Junior William Solomon finished in second place with a career best 7.60-meter-long jump and ended the day as a member of the All-ACC First Team. Junior Ksenia Novikova also received All-ACC First Team honors after surpassing her previous career best pole vault with a 4.06-meter vault.

Freshmen Benjamin Jean and Tyson Spears ended the second day of their ACC Championship debuts with career best performances. Jean advanced to the finals in the 400-meter with a personal record of 42.27 seconds, and Spears posted career bests in the 60-meter and 200-meter preliminaries. Both the women’s and men’s teams ended the second day of the championship in 11th place.

Five Tech athletes received All-ACC honors on the final day of the championship. Junior Preston Smith posted a career best 15.11-meter triple jump that earned him eighth place. After posting a career best time in the 400-meter, Jean ran a 47.18-second 400-meter race. The fraction of a second that Jean took off his day two 400-meter time earned him sixth place and earned All-ACC Second Team honors.

Junior Andreas Ward and senior Kendra Collins also garnered All-ACC Second Team honors for their efforts. Ward placed sixth in the men’s 60-meter hurdles and Collins took sixth in the
women’s race. Earning themselves fourth place and sixth place, respectively, in the 800-meter, sophomore Avery Bartlett and senior Andres Littig were also named to the All-ACC Second Team on the third day.

Tech ended the third and final day of championship competition after many career-best events. The women left the ACC Championships ranked 13th, three spots lower than last year. The men shaved off three spots from their 2016 championship record to end the 2017 ACC Championships ranked 10th.

The focus for Tech now shifts to the outdoor season. In May, the team will host the ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships for the fourth time in Institute history, an opportunity to once again welcome top performers from across the conference.